Breakwell's Circus (1979) for electronic tape

Duration: 25 minutes

Originally commissioned by Third Eye Centre, Glasgow (now the Centre for Contemporary Arts), this work for two track stereo tape was conceived in collaboration with artist Ian Breakwell to be heard during his exhibition "Circus". This was a response to the early 20th Century Hengler's Circus, housed on a former building near the Third Eye site.

The tape treats the voice of Ian Breakwell, reading his own text "Circus: Sixteen Animal Acts".
This is integrated into a musical texture McQueen describes as "sixteen variations" on the rather Gothic main theme of Liszt's First Piano Concerto.

The tape was played during an exhibition of sixteen wall hangings (featuring the read texts) by Breakwell, and then commercially released as a supplement to Audio Arts magazine, which appeared in the form of a cassette tape and may now be found in many institutional library collections.